How to Handle Salary Requirements When Applying for a Job

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Job interviewing is like art: it requires skill, dexterity, and the right tools and environment. Make one wrong move and the result can be disastrous. This is especially true when it comes to discussing salary requirements. As a job-seeker, approaching a conversation with a prospective employer about salary requirements can be tricky.

How soon can you expect an employer to ask you about your salary requirements? Should you ever include salary requirements in a cover letter? How can you pick a salary that doesn't aim too high or too low?

To find sage answers to these and other basic questions about salary requirements, I tapped several career experts for their wisdom.

The Ins and Outs of Salary Requirements

Question: When interviewing for a new job, what are some basic principles job-seekers should keep in mind about their salary requirements?
Answers: "Salary requirements should be based on the market value for a particular skill set or job … not on the job seeker’s needs or desires," says Barbara Safani, president of New York-based Career Solvers, a career-management firm. You should be flexible, too, knowing much can transpire during the time when a job is first posted and when it's filled, she explains. "If a position seems perfect for you, but the salary is lower than you had hoped for, go through the interview process and sell your value to the hiring manager throughout. Once a hiring manager decides that you are the right candidate, they will be more willing to negotiate salary."

Dr. Rachelle J. Canter, author of “Make the Right Career Move: 28 Critical Insights and Strategies to Land Your Dream Job,” urges job-seekers to focus not just on salary requirements, but on opportunity. To that end, she advises asking yourself some key questions, such as:

• Will this job provide you with crucial experiences, skills, and accomplishments that you need to attain your dream job eventually? 
• Will it fill in critical gaps in your industry or job experience? 
• Will it give you visibility with an audience you previously were unknown to?

Question: Should job-seekers mention salary requirements in cover letters?
Answer: "No no no-–salary is a way to screen you out (too high or too low), and you want a chance to look over a prospective employer before being eliminated," Canter explains.

Question: Should job-seekers give an exact salary figure, or a salary range?
Answers: If you have to, give a range for your salary requirements, Canter says, but try to stay focused on whether the job is the right fit."Once an employer falls in love with you, your negotiating power increases exponentially," she says.

Safani also recommends a range instead of a specific number, because it gives you wiggle room once you get to the salary negotiation stage.

Question: How soon during the interviewing process can a job-seeker expect the salary requirement conversation to come up?
Answer: It could arise as soon as the first interview, so you need to know your competitive market value before you start interviewing, Safani says. You can try deferring the conversation by saying you'd like to learn more about the job, so you can gauge whether it's a good match before rolling out your salary requirements. If an employer presses you for a "ballpark figure," ask for the salary range of the job, Safani says; if they won't divulge it, say based on your research, you've found that pay for such positions is "between X and Y," and ask if that's consistent with their range.

Question: How do you determine what your salary requirements should be, so you’re not aiming too high or low?
Answer: "Job seekers should benchmark their market value by talking with recruiters and colleagues, researching salary ranges for comparable positions on the job boards, reviewing salary information available through professional associations, and of course reviewing information on PayScale," according to Safani.

Questions: What if a prospective employer asks to verify your current salary with your current employer? What if this jeopardizes your current position?
Answer: "Until there is an offer on the table, this question should not come up. Once an offer is made, this is considered fair game as part of the due diligence process for some employers," Safani says. "Job seekers can politely explain that if an offer is extended, they would be willing to have their salary information verified."

Comments

[JLV]

I completely disagree with the notion that one should disclose salary information. I have changed jobs with 4 different companies (within the same industry and same role) in the last 5 years and have managed to double my salary. I have never been laid off and I have always left as a result of a competing offer to go elsewhere. Some might call this job hopping but I call it active career management.

The most important thing to do is to expand your professional network and GET ON LINKED IN!!! It is an invaluable tool for recruiters to find you. I've been poached 3 times from recruiters who found me on Linked In.

When you get contacted about a position you need to stand firm on 2 things. Remember, you ALREADY have a job so they have to accomodate you, otherwise you can politely tell them to bug off. Those two things are salary and references.

Take control of the conversation and politely but firmly explain that you do not discuss salary information. Tell them that the focus of any discussion should be around your qualifications and not how much you make. Tell them that this is a non-starter. Trust me, this will weed out companies and recruiters that will will waste your time.

The second is references. I've had many headhunters contact me about an opportunity and begin with asking me to provide references. BIG NO NO! Tell them that you will ONLY provide references upon a bona fide offer of employment. It makes no sense for you to provide the headhunter or client company with access to your network before they even work to get you an offer letter. Just tell them that they can make the offer contingent upon a successful reference check.

Those are my 2 cents and I can tell you that I am a recent college graduate with about 5 years experience and have so far doubled my salary. Yes, I am fortunate enough to be in a lucrative industry (mining) but the principles are universal. If you are working then the burden is on the recruiter and company to ENTICE you to consider moving.

[Gabe]

When your in the interview and salary negotiation comes up, what would be the best course of action to get what you really want for a salary?

[Alicia Delgado]

These hints are helpful, I agree, however as a jobhunter I am finding many position listings that ask me to include in my cover letter my desired salary range. If I neglect to include a request I am surely not considered, and if I do include a desired salary/salary range I may inadvertantly take myself out of the running as well. Tricky!

[Barbara Safani]

Beatrice,

I am very familiar with the forced choice salary field on company online applications. It's one of the reasons why I'm not a big fan of online posting...because you are benchmarked before even having a conversation with a hiring manager. Try putting an * sign in the salary field. This often allows you to bypass the salary field and it increases the changes of actually getting a human to view your application.

[Beatrice Block]

All of the comments by all of the "experts" look good in a blog, BUT, when filling out a webform, there usually are fields for past salary and expected salary. These fields are usually required and necessitate that you fill in the truth, esp. when they give $ choices and don't let you negotiate. All of the articles I've read not only do NOT deal with that fact, it seems that these people are so out of touch, they don't even know that these required fields exist. Your lack of knowledge evidences very clearly that you are NOT in the job market looking for work.

[NG]

Instead of having an interviewer call your current job to verify your salary, why not offer to show pay stubs from the past few months as proof?

[VENU]

nice to see all the informantion online its helpful and interesting also.

[ganesh]

Very useful, good article

[Finance]

That is a great list of interview questions and answers that help many of job seekers in their job searching. Good work!

[Shortcuts to Internet Millions]

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